(Titan Submarine via OceanGate.)
The search continued through the night in a race against time to find a submersible missing in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland with five people on board.
The Titan, a submersible owned by OceanGate Expeditions, was taking a small group to the bottom of the Atlantic to view the wreck of the Titanic when it lost contact with the supply ship Polar Prince just one hour and 45 minutes into its descent Sunday morning.
(Via OceanGate)
The US Coast Guard, which is leading the search and rescue mission, provided an update last evening.
Rear Admiral John Mauger says they are doing everything they can to locate the missing vessel, with numerous American and Canadian aircraft conducting aerial searches.
In addition to specialized aircraft designed for submersible searches, they have dropped a number of sonar buoys in the search area.
An Aurora military aircraft and the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Kopit Hopson are assisting.
(OceanGate Inc. Founder and CEO Stockton Rush)
Among the five people on board are OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush, UK billionaire Hamish Harding, French pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet and two members of an iconic Pakistani business family.
In February, Stockton Rush told VOCM News that the 20-ft. submersible had enough resources to sustain life for four days, including extra oxygen tanks and carbon dioxide scrubbers. He also indicated that they’ve spent a lot of time designing the sub so that it does not collapse, and have found “lots of ways” to get to the surface. “Everything else is secondary.”
The submersible is not tethered, and had been communicating with the Polar Prince through a series of pings. The submersible was reported overdue when the signals stopped and it failed to resurface.
